Fresh Start
by Rebel Don
Summary: The simplest change often has the most profound effect on the world around it. See what happens to the flow of time if Minato and Kushina had gotten busy soon rather than later and had Naruto seven years earlier. What will happen to our number one gutsy ninja when he has a chance to grow into a truly powerful ninja.


Naruto Namikaze sat on top of the Hokage tower looking out over the village as the sun set on a most beautiful October nint. From his vantage point atop the tower he could see the sky over the hokage monument set ablaze in a magnificent display of reds yellows and oranges that barely illuminated the pedestrians walking the streets below.

As Naruto sat at the edge of the roof, feet lazily swinging over the edge of the roof he leaned back with his hands behind his head and laid down.

Looking up at the ever darkening sky he absentmindedly ran his hand over to the forehead protector that was threaded through the belt loops of his black pants with the plate looking like a buckle. Feeling it reminded him of the feeling of pride he had after he had passed his Genin exam earlier that day. He and his best friend had both managed to pass at the top of their class despite a moderate difference in age between them and the other graduates. Thinking back it really was amazing that he and Itachi had not only been allowed to bypass all the lower grades, but had also excelled at them enough to graduate in only one semester after joining. Naruto had a feeling though that all the adults and important figures were more than happy to see two potential shinobi show so much promise at such a young age as seven, despite what the other students felt.

Naruto let a small smile grace his face as he thought back to how irritated his and Itachi's classmates had been on graduation day when they saw them both receive their headbands along with students five years older than them. A quick sparing session reminded them that he and Itachi were not random outliers who slipped through the academy quickly. Rumors of the two of them being spoiled clan heirs were ended as soon as an unfortunate potential foe stepped into the sparring ring.

Many assumed that they received special exclusive training from their families and, while they did get some, the truth was that ever since Naruto could remember he had been training with Itachi to become the best ninjas they could. Where other children found happiness in toys and playground games Naruto and Itachi found joy in learning new jutsu and gaining more skills. since they could walk the two of them had been allowed to and encouraged to train by their respective families which only served to fuel their drive.

In addition to having above average chakra control, taijutsu (Naruto), Genjutsu(Itachi) both also had a stellar track record on the subject of ninjutsu .When they had been only five Itachi had managed to utilize the first tomoe of his Sharingan and Naruto had been able to materialize chakra chains like his mother could. When they were six and most of the soldiers fought in the third shinobi world war, the two saw a first-hand look at what real war was and amped their training up by an incredible degree which helped Naruto learn some basic Fuuton jutsu and perfect his binding chains and led Itachi to unlock the second of his tomoe along with a wide array of fancy new Katon jutsu.

Sadly all of the accomplishments they boasted held significant drawbacks to them. Itachi had only average chakra reserves for a seven year old which conflicted wildly with his Sharingan and fire style jutsu both of which drained him a great deal. Naruto had a similar problem despite his well above average reserves due to the fact that his favorite jutsu, the chakra chains, used an immense amount of chakra for a small child to wield properly.

As Naruto's thoughts about the academy and his skills were swirling around in his head, he heard the light clacking of wooden sandals coming up the stairs behind him. He propped himself back up and turned around to see the retired Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, The Professor, God of Shinobi, or as Naruto affectionately referred to him …

"Hey Ojii-san what brings you up here?" Naruto asked as the ex-kage walked over and stood next to him

"I simply wanted to see if how you were doing Naruto-kun and to congratulate you again on making genin in such a short time." He said as he took a drag on his pipe and puffed out a small circle.

"I'm doing great Jii" Naruto said, swinging himself into a handstand and them jumping to his feet, "Tomorrow my squad will get to meet our jonin sensei and we'll be able to get started on real missions and stuff."

Hiruzen looked down at the boy and chuckled, "Settle down Naruto-kun, you know the only missions for freshly minted genins are d-rank don't you? I doubt you'll have what you would consider a "real mission" for several months."

Naruto pouted up at sarutobi and let out a lone whine "awwwww cmonnnnn Ojii-san, you run the mission assignment desk don't you I bet you could get my squad all sorts of cool missions can't ya. I can see it now" He said as he turned to face Konoha waved his hand up in the air as he spoke in a cheesy announcer's voice "_Konoha genin_ _squad has once again successfully completed yet another S-rank assassination mission giving them the highest mission completion record of all time. Parades will be held in their honor for the next year."_

Hiruzen looked down at the boy's smiling face and lightly shook his head "Naruto despite what you may feel to the contrary I pray that neither you nor anyone on your squad has to ever go on an S-rank _anything _let alone an assassination."

Naruto smile still on his face waved a hand at his quasi-grandfather "I know I know Ojii-san I was just playing with ya. Truth be told while it'll be annoying to be stuck with grunt work it's nice to be allowed to take it slow before ya get thrown into the flames ya know?"

"Well Naruto that's a very mature way of looking at things and it does my heart good to know that your success so far hasn't clouded your judgment. Not that I was worried, after all I doubt your mother would put up with an arrogant son don't ya think?"

"Speaking of my mom Ojii-san, has there been word on when I'll get my new siblings. I'd really like it to be tomorrow so that we can all have the same birthday and then have a super big party every year."

"Come to think of it Naruto you may get your wish. Tsunade said that it looks like your mother is due any day now, so it is very possible that it may in fact be tomorrow."

Naruto smiled for a moment and then looked back down letting a small frown slip onto his face "Will I be allowed to be there when it happens or is everyone still worried about the security risk involved with the seal?"

Sarutobi laughed as he semi-gently patted Naruto on the back rousing him from his funk "Trust me my boy there is nothing exciting about watching a child be born, compared to that S-rank missions are like babysitting." He said as he then put his hand to his chin in an exaggerated thinking pose, "That and given the fact that it's Kushina giving birth, I highly doubt Minato wants you to be there watching as his wife breaks his hand and teaches you ever curse word ever conceived."

Naruto let out a chuckle and turned around with a large grin adorning his face "Thanks Ojii-san, I guess I don't really want to be there too much anyway. By the way, do ya know if Pervy-sage is goanna make it to my party tomorrow?"

Sarutobi shook his head "No I'm afraid that Jiraiya won't make it into town until very late tomorrow night so he might miss your party."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders "Eh its fine he'll just have to make it up to me with a super cool gift then. I hope it something awesome like a new jutsu scroll or maybe a fancy forehead protector like his or maybe he'll let me sign the toad summoning contract or _maybe _he'll get me all three." Naruto said practically bouncing up and down with anticipation.

Hiruzen shook his head once again at naruto's antics happy that the child considered his ninja training to be such an important part of his life even at such a young age. A part of him felt saddened by the fact the Naruto hadn't gotten a chance to experience the kind of childhood other children had but he felt better knowing that Naruto truly enjoyed his training. As he thought this Hiruzen looked and was the last lights of the sun fade over the horizon blanketing the village in twinkling starlight. "Well Naruto it's getting late and you have a big day tomorrow. You only get to meet your Jonin sensei for the first time once so try to make a good impression."

"Sure thing Ojii-san. I'll make sure I blow my new sensei away!" Naruto said smiling and holding his thumb up as he walked back over to the edge of the building taking a dramatic pose "Come tomorrow morning he'll be forced to acknowledge the name Naruto Namikaze!"

As Naruto shouted he lept off the building the mid fall threw a blunted kunai across the village towards his house. As it was about to start descending he used a kawarimi to switch places with it and then quickly throw another continuing his path across the ctiy. Ever since learning about his father's legendary Hiraishin Naruto had been trying to figure out a way to make it work for him. His father had said that he wouldn't hand the technique to Naruto and had even refused the notes to it telling Naruto that finding it by his own power would be worth far more in the long run. Naruto wasn't too sure about that but was willing to shrug it off. As a result of his attempts to replicate he had found that, despite what it is most often used for by shinobi, kawarimi can switch someone with far more than just a log. Naruto found that if someone was to focus hard enough then they are able to replace themselves with almost anything they can think of perhaps even their own enemies however Naruto had yet to try that due to the potential danger and lack of suitable test subjects. All in all however he liked his little unnamed imitation hiraishin and true to dad's word a small part of him was a little bit proud he came up with it on his own and as he was headed home Naruto felt confident that he was prepared for whatever obstacles his future may hold

"**OI WHO THE HELL KEEPS DROPPING KUNAI ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE!**"

Then again everything could always use a little more work…

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AN: wanted to keep this prologue short if people want a longer chapter than it is doable at a later date but I wanted to get a bit of feedback on some of the decisions I have to make with regards to the story in addition to a few notes about it.

Notes first,

I'm not a fan of author's notes unless there is a need and will try to refrain from them whenever possible now being an exception because I have to use the AN to say I don't like them.

I have issues with digging my heels in on an idea and am often plagued with second guessing myself and my plot decisions which is why I will use review polls when I need. This allows me to potentially gain more reviews while at the same time allowing me to produce a story that fits more with what the public would prefer. In instances of polling I don't think of it as abandoning an idea because by the time I decide to ask the audience I will have already written up two separate plots based on the decision.

One example is question one

The pairing for Naruto in this story with options ranging from…

Earlier birthdate Hinata

Someone else

OC

Personally I like the Naruto-Hinata paring and would be interested in using the altered timeline and the fact that her mom would be alive at the time to better refine her character but I am also aware that it can be annoying to watch someone ram their particular pairing into a story because they are their favorite couple. When deciding please do bear in mind the seven year age alteration between normal story's Naruto and the rest of his cannon classmates

Question two

A bit of a curve ball question but what is public opinion of orochimaru defection or not. Seeing as I've already altered the plot a great deal it wouldn't be a stretch to twist minato instead of hiruzen into convincing orochimaru to stay in konoha as a researcher of some sort. Not a big plot point either way small moments at best but given his rep and my desire to see what people think I'll leave it to you to decide.

Yes or No on him leaving Konoha

Question three "rights reserved to disregard it based in quality of arguments"

Should Naruto and Itachi each gain the Rinnegan after some sort of accident requires a single eye transplant? Not much more detail than that pretty simple and self-explanatory. Although I'm leaning a particular way it would help to see either a strong opposing argument or a group consensus.

Yes or No on them gaining the Rinnegan through some means.

Well that about does it thank you for taking the time to read and please take the additional time to help make your opinion known to me.


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